Cyprus Lefkosia

Christmas Eve - our day for a lesson in political history – Lefkosia – the divided city. The south bit of the city is under Greek influence and the north under Turkish. Not so long ago it was difficult to travel between the two parts but today with our passports and temporary visa we could walk over to the north side (no driving as we hadn’t taken out insurance to cover us in the north). Cyprus is a city with a huge history like so many European countries central to a major transportation route. After World War II when Cyprus had sided with the Germans, the Greek Cypriots wanted unification with Greece. Not surprisingly the Turkish minority didn’t want that and over this time tensions rose in this small island. The EOKA (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) was established in 1954 by Archbishop Makarios and Greek General George Grivas. Four years later the Turkish Cypriots founded the TNT (Turkish Resistance Organisation). Havoc and terror reigned and it is hard to picture this town as anything but peaceful, but during our visit to the memorial we discovered bullet holes in some of the statues which sort of helped to reinforce the truth of the past.  In 1963 animosity peaked and the Greek army and the Turkish air force went to war. A year later UN troops arrived to restore peace and in 1974 a coup d’etat ousted Markarios who was the first president of Cyprus. Thirty years later Cyprus joined the EU and one of the conditions of entry was that the island was to unite - not yet agreed to by the Greeks.  There is still quite a strong sense of animosity as at the customs border something caught our fancy and we smiled. The customs officer told us to read up on our history and to take it seriously - obviously the wounds are still very raw for some - and I felt a bit affronted as I had been reading all about the history, the pain, the suffering and the political solutions in bed the night before. The guide book says that "A Greek-Cypriot policeman will check passports and happily send you on your way (not the one we met) while the Turkish Cypriot will ask us to complete a form (which we did and will keep forever with our passports)".
But before the crossing we toured South Lefkosia (Nicosia to the English) and a little bit of the north. The south is a big city stretching for about 4 kilometres before reaching the centre – which we found miraculously (far easier than finding our hotel). The city is the centre for finance and business and is also the seat of  government. We found the old town and wandered around the streets and venetian wall (which is not typical of others as the city sits at the top of the wall rather than the bottom). The guide book said to have a look at the doorways in the old part of Lefkosia and I did - fascinating to be told to do something which I often do anyway.  Doorways tell a story about the people inside and it is easy to imagine what the interior is like from the exterior (though I admit my imagination probably isn't always right).  Many of the doorways in this city gave me the impression that the owners really didn’t care a less about what tourists think, others showed a pride in the home, some the owner had an initial pride when they moved in but the dead pot plant sort of indicated the pride had gone (or perhaps they have given up since it has got peed on by too many cats). Some are welcoming (bells, knockers, painted brightly, mistletoe) like the one to the Turkish Baths that said 'Men today' and some not so welcoming (barred, nailed, chained, covered in graffiti, falling down, peeling paint). Then there’s windows that you can’t look through because of thick net curtaining because the owner likes their privacy or wants to protect their furniture and others which the owner likes to show their rooms to those who pass by.  Anyway, the doorways in Lefkosia are fascinating many of them with a window on the top covered with wrought iron – with the date of when the house was built – we saw some as early as the 1890’s and others as late as 1920’s. Great photo opportunities for the door enthusiast!  Some of the streets were tourist-less, which meant we could negotiate narrow footpaths fairly easily while others had groups of people sitting (usually elderly men with a beer in their hand and a smoke in the other) waiting for their roadside rotisserie to be cooked. We lunched on cheese and crackers, biscuits and oranges in a small grove of oranges...
Being Christmas Eve lots of things were closed though we walked past the Folk Art Museum, Cathedral of St John the Theologian, Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios House (18th centrury former home of Turkish dragoman who is a person who interprets, translates and is an official guide in either a Turkish, Arabic or Persian speaking country) and the Liberty Monument (one of the best we’ve seen to symbolizes the liberation of people with statues).  In the south there are some fairly upmarket tourist shops that sell silver filigree jewellery (I had seen it being made in Malta and it is just like lace work but I discovered you had to clean it – it is silver after all – so decided not to buy). The guide book described this area as Laiki Geitonia (means local neighbourhood) "clustered within a small area of narrow, winding alleys, in prettily restored houses are numerous restaurants, shady cafes, handicraft workshops and souvenir shops aimed primarily at tourists". Not far away in fact only a few steps is the more modern shopping area (Starbucks, KFC, Mcdonalds – you get the picture) and this area was packed with locals doing their last minute Christmas shopping. Lots of vendors selling hot corn on the cob (mostly burnt), those little fur animals that make noises and jump up and down and glitzy balloons saying Happy Christmas.  Around the city are bits of the walls built in 1567 - it circles both the north and the south of the city with the United Nations bit in between.

We walked across the pedestrian access through the Ledra Palace gate and the UN buffer zone - its known as the green line - the name comes from the 1960's when Lefkosia was partitioned. A British officer drew a line on the map in green showing how the city and country would be separated - well that's the story we read anyway. In sharp contrast North Lefkosia was quiet – being mainly Moslem I guess could be the reason – and a pleasure to walk around. This area is home to over half of the population of North Cyprus and had a peacefulness and quietness about it that South Lefkosia doesn’t (probably because there were less vehicles in the area we were in). The streets are narrow and people sit and drink coffee and eat meals - everything appeared at a much slower pace than in the north. We spent some time in the Buyuk Han which is a former inn and caravan-serai which was built during the Ottoman empire around 1570’s.  It was built as an inn for travelling merchants (had a hotel look about it). Under the Brits it became a prison but it is now restored and houses souvenir shops, galleries, cafes, wine bars – we couldn’t help but browse. The little octagonal building in the middle is a Muslim shrine and prayer hall with a fountain for having a wash if you need one. We also went into the Selima Mosque that was once the Cathedral Church of St Sophia built somewhere around the 12-1300’s. We returned to the south side – wishing we could spend more time in the north – but maybe some other time we can catch the ferry from Turkey.